SCIENCE ON SCREEN – MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL with Dr. Mark Bear, Neuroscientist at MIT

The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.

Pre-screening Dr. Mark Bear from MIT will present and explain the possibilities of how a “Neutralyzer” could work on the human brain and the current scientific research being studied regarding memory and memory loss.

Dr. Mark Bear is a Picower Professor of Neuroscience in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 22 years from 1994 to 2015 and served as Director of the Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009. Dr. Bear served as Director of The Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009. Prior to moving to MIT in 2003, Dr. Bear was on the faculty of Brown University School of Medicine for 17 years. After receiving his B.S. Degree from Duke University, he earned his Ph.D. Degree in neurobiology at Brown. He took postdoctoral training from Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and from Leon Cooper at Brown. His laboratory is interested in how the brain is modified by experience. He uses a variety of methods (electrophysiological, biochemical, molecular, behavioral, and anatomical) to examine the synaptic modifications that form the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. His work is particularly focused on understanding developmental plasticity in the visual cortex, as well as other forms of experience-dependent synaptic modification in visual cortex and hippocampus. In recent years Dr. Bear has described novel forms of procedural learning in the visual system, and investigated synaptic function in models of fragile X syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders.

Supported in part by the Farm Neck Foundation.

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